Wolves and grizzly bears continue to expand their territories across Wyoming, Montana, Idaho and a few other states, and although an effort to encourage bison to do the same is underway, the specifics are being kept under wraps.
A Montana congressman is calling for transparency regarding an effort to expand bison numbers on public lands in the West.
Through the Inflation Reduction Act, the Biden administration in March allocated $25 million to the U.S. Department of Interior to explore restoration of bison over an undefined region of the northern plains.
That came in concert with a Department of the Interior announcement dated March 3 that loosely spells out the broad intent to restore bison and prairie grassland ecosystems. But in the months since, mum’s the word from the department on its progress.
The relaxed level of communication on the matter prompted Montana Congressman Matthew Rosendale last week to send a letter to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland seeking minutes from meetings, meeting schedules, participant lists, agendas, a list of groups that provided input, a list of invited participants and a written statement on why the meetings are not open to the public.
Congressman Rosendale also asked for a response to his request by Monday.
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U.S. News & World Report Includes 10 Scarinci Hollenbeck Attorneys in 2024 Edition of Best Lawyers in America
From a Scarinci & Hollenbeck news release
Little Falls NJ – August 18, 2023 –Scarinci Hollenbeck is pleased to announce that ten attorneys have been included in the 2024 edition of The Best Lawyers in America®. First published in 1983, Best Lawyers is universally regarded as the definitive guide to legal excellence.
The Best Lawyers in America® and The Ones to Watch in America® lists is lauded as a reliable, unbiased source of legal referrals. Lawyers featured on the Best Lawyers list are divided by geographic region and practice areas. They are exhaustively reviewed by their peers based on professional expertise and undergo an authentication process to make sure they are in current practice and in good standing.
The firm congratulates the following attorneys named to the 2024 The Best Lawyers in America® list:
David Edelberg – Bankruptcy and Creditor Debtor Rights / Insolvency and Reorganization Law and Commercial Litigation
Joel Glucksman – Bankruptcy and Creditor Debtor Rights / Insolvency and Reorganization Law
Kenneth J. Hollenbeck – Environmental Law
Robert E. Levy – Criminal Defense: General Practice
Robert Marsico – Real Estate Law
Patrick McNamara – Land Use and Zoning Law
Donald Scarinci – Government Relations Practice and Real Estate Law
Nathanya G. Simon – Education Law
The firm also congratulates the following attorneys for being named as 2024 Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in America®:
Samantha Blake – Litigation – Labor and Employment
Arianna Mouré – Labor and Employment Law – Management and Litigation – Labor and Employment
Best Lawyers is the oldest and most respected lawyer-ranking service in the world. For 40 years, Best Lawyers has assisted those in need of legal services to identify the lawyers best qualified to represent them in distant jurisdictions or unfamiliar specialties. Best Lawyers awards are published in leading local, regional, and national publications across the globe.
Lawyers who are nominated for consideration are voted on by currently recognized Best Lawyers working in the same practice area and located in the same geographic region. Our awards and recognitions are based purely on the feedback we receive from these top lawyers. Those who receive high peer reviews undergo a thorough verification process to make sure they are currently still in private practice. Only then can these top lawyers be recognized by Best Lawyers.
Zach Rehl, head of the Philadelphia chapter of the Proud Boys, could spend three decades in federal prison if prosecutors get their way later this month at his sentencing hearing
Philly Proud Boys president Zachary Rehl, left, and Ethan Nordean, a regional leader of the organization, march toward the U.S. Capitol in Washington, in support of President Donald Trump, on Jan. 6, 2021.Carolyn Kaster / AP
By Jeremy Roebuck, Philadelphia Inquirer
The role that Rehl and three other leaders of the neofascist organization played in organizing the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol “threatened the bedrock principles of our country” and warranted the significant punishment, government lawyers argued in a court filing late Thursday.
Their recommendation of 30 years is considerably more than that of the most serious prison sentence imposed so far against a participant in the Capitol siege — the 18-year term given in May to Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes.
“These defendants and the men in their command saw themselves as the foot soldiers of the right — they were prepared to use, and they did use, force to stop the ‘traitors’ from stealing the election,” Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jason B.A. McCullough and Conor Mulroe wrote of Rehl and his codefendants. “They failed. They are not heroes; they are criminals.”
Like Rhodes, Rehl, 37, of Port Richmond, and three codefendants — Enrique Tarrio, the Proud Boys national chairman; and regional leaders Ethan Nordean and Joseph Biggs — were convicted by a federal jury on seditious conspiracy charges, the most serious count levied against any of the more than 1,000 charged participants in the Jan. 6 riot and one that carries a prison sentence of up to 20 years.
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NEW YORK (August 17, 2023) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has deleted the Smithtown Groundwater Contamination Superfund site in Smithtown, New York, from the National Priorities List (NPL) of Superfund sites. EPA has determined all cleanup work has been completed and that no further federal action is required at the site.
“A few decades ago, people were drinking the contaminated groundwater at this site, but thanks to our Superfund program EPA was able to quickly give them a safe and permanent source of drinking water, allowing the aquifer time to recover,” saidEPA Regional Administrator Lisa F. Garcia. “Contamination levels in the groundwater have fallen to a level that meets drinking water standards, and EPA is now removing the designation of this site as a Superfund site.”
“I applaud EPA’s successful efforts to address the toxic contamination at the Smithtown Groundwater Contamination Site that has threatened the health of local residents for years. It is imperative that all New Yorkers have access to clean drinking water, and everyone deserves to know that their community is a safe place to live, work, and raise a family,” said New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. “Thanks to this 24-year effort, residents of Nissequogue and Head of the Harbor can now take solace in knowing their groundwater is safe, and I will never stop fighting to ensure it remains that way.”
Groundwater at the site became contaminated with tetrachloroethylene (or PCE), a solvent used in dry cleaning and metal cleaning, though in this case EPA was not able to pinpoint specific sources of the contamination. Exposure to PCE can have serious health impacts, including liver damage and an increased risk of cancer. EPA selected a cleanup plan in 2004 to clean up groundwater contaminated with PCE. The plan included providing alternate water supplies to homes affected by the contamination and relied on existing state and local regulations to restrict future groundwater use.
In 2005, EPA began installing service lines to connect people’s homes to the public water that is regulated and regularly tested. In addition, EPA extended the water main so all the impacted homes could be connected. EPA monitored groundwater using a network of monitoring wells to gauge the concentration and movement of the PCE in the groundwater over time.
When hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants remain on a site at levels that limit use and restrict exposure, EPA conducts follow-up reviews every five years. These five-year reviews, ensure that the cleanup actions continue to protect people and the environment. Several five-year reviews of the site were performed from 2011 through 2020 to ensure that contamination was not posing a risk to people. The most recent five-year review, conducted in November 2020, determined that EPA’s actions at the site protect people’s health and the environment. Levels of PCE in the groundwater have fallen below state and federal drinking water standards. As a result, no additional five-year reviews will be required.
The NPL includes some of the nation’s most serious uncontrolled or abandoned releases of contamination. EPA deletes sites or parts of sites from the NPL when no further cleanup is required to protect human health or the environment. Years, and sometimes decades, of complex investigation and cleanup work, have gone into getting these sites to where they are today.
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She was the first female Muslim mayor in the United States. Then she was the first of two Muslims — both women — elected to the New Jersey State legislature.
Now, Assemblywoman Sadaf Jaffer, D-Montgomery, has decided that she will not seek reelection after just one term.
In an interview with The Record and NorthJersey.com, Jaffer said she had face sustained harassment both online and in opponents’ attack ads because of her religious background. She will not seek re-election because she doesn’t want her family to put her family, including her young daughter, through another ugly election cycle.
Assemblywoman Sadaf Jaffer, PhD, who represents New Jersey’s 16th Legislative District is a Princeton University Researcher and Lecturer in South Asian Studies. Passionate advocate for racial, economic, and gender justice.
Every campaign is a commitment. It is a sacrifice for family. I just decided this was best in terms of being able to focus on my daughter and, you know, not having to subject myself and my family, including my daughter, to the type of harassment I get as a Muslim official, as a woman of color running for office.
What type of haassment did you face?
It’s a slow drip of messages, comments, emails, tweets, Facebook comments that give the impression that my participation is not welcome. There are questions about my intentions. Unfortunately, my political opponents have also used that type of messaging against me in the campaign for assembly last year. My opponents had television ads, text messages, everything saying Sadaf Jaffer is a radical, reject extremism don’t vote for her, that sort of thing.
We all know it just takes one person to have a negative reaction to that sort of messaging and someone can get hurt. When I was making my decision there had been a series of state legislators whose homes had been shot into, including one where a 10-year-old girl was sleeping. Just thinking about that environment, I decided to focus on keeping my family safe and protected both emotionally and physically.
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Critics called the state’s plan, which rejected a request to cut sulfur emissions at coal plants, a “do nothing” strategy. The EPA now wants six power plants to slash emissions by 80,000 tons.
The view from Guadalupe Peak, the highest point in Texas, is often obscured by haze from both local and regional air pollution sources. Credit: Martha Pskowski/Inside Climate News.
By Martha Pskowskids, Inside Climate News
The National Parks Conservation Association Texas Young Leaders Advocacy Council and other environmental groups are pushing state and federal regulators to take aggressive action to eliminate air pollution at national parks through the Environmental Protection Agency’s Regional Haze Rule. Issued in 1999 under the Clean Air Act, the rule calls for state and federal regulators to work together to improve visibility in national parks and wilderness areas.
States submit progress reports every five years and update their action plans, known as implementation plans, every 10 years. Each plan is divided into an initial phase that covers the largest individual polluters and a second one that focuses on ongoing emissions reductions from a range of sources.
the EPA announced that the plan’s first phase was inadequate because it did not include the best available technology for reducing sulfur dioxide and particulate matter.
Members of the National Parks Conservation Association Texas Young Leaders Advocacy Council visited Guadalupe Mountains National Park in June from San Antonio. They summited Guadalupe Peak and learned about sources of regional air pollution. Credit: Courtesy of NPCA.
The agency proposed a new strategy for Texas that would require six coal plants, all major contributors to haze, to reduce their emissions of sulfur dioxide. The public comment period on that proposed rule closed on Aug. 2. The EPA has not announced when it will release the final rule.
Environmental advocates are calling on the EPA to similarly reject Texas’s plan for the second phase of the haze rule, submitted in July 2021. They also want Texas to implement more pollution controls in the second phase for the numerous oil and gas drilling sites contributing to air pollution at national parks.
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